Distillery 24 Jazz Trio: in perfect harmony

The Society’s 35th anniversary reaches a crescendo with this set of whiskies like no other – a trio of distinctive bottlings from distillery 24 that all shared their first 20 years of life in the same oloroso sherry puncheon, before taking their own paths in three different cask types

Reading Time: 2minutes

You know we like to do things differently at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and sometimes that means playing our own tunes with the whiskies in our warehouse.
In this case, we had a large oloroso sherry puncheon from distillery 24, which had reached the age of 20 before we decided to divide it into three separate casks for an additional two years of maturation.

We split the whisky between a first-fill oloroso hogshead, a first-fill Pedro Ximenez hogshead and a second-fill bourbon barrel to see what impact and influence the wood would have on the on the whisky’s flavour. True to expectation, after the period of further maturation, all three whiskies each display a different Flavour Profile in the finished product, varying from Deep, Rich & Dried Fruits to Old & Dignified and Sweet, Fruity & Mellow.

“The concept for the Jazz Trio is all about the differences between the three woods, and the variety of flavours they’ve created from whisky that spent its first 20 years in the same sherry puncheon,” says SMWS spirits manager Euan Campbell.
SMWS ambassador and jazz aficionado Hans Offringa has even paired each bottling with one of his favourite jazz artists. In his Tasting Notes, he writes:

Cask No. 24.134: A dark allurement
Appeal, glamour, allurement, temptation, bewitchment, enchantment, charm, seduction, persuasion, fascination, magnetism. Who else than Oscar Peterson comes to mind when tasting this wonderfully created harmonious dram which has the same allure indeed as that famous jazz pianist, who often has been dubbed the greatest of all.

Cask No. 24.135: An opulent temptation
Opulent, as in full, rounded, ample, grand, splendid and rich, both in stature as in his playing the drums, that’s Martin Drew. To the ear it sounds as if he is almost tempted to burst into a great solo all the time, but he contains that urge, in a similar way as the cask that held this particular beauty contained all its flavours and delivered them in a rich and lavish array, tempting you in a moreish way.

Cask No. 24.136: A sweet seduction
Appeal, attraction, pull, draw, enticement, yet unobtrusive. When listening to Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen, I am immediately drawn into the music when he sophisticatedly pulls the strings. This dram does the same. A powerhouse gently unveiling its wonderful character. It never gets in the way, but it is definitely there, just as Oscar Peterson once mentioned about Pedersen accompanying him.